With a drunken-driving suspect in the backseat of his cruiser, Blakely Police Chief Guy Salerno last week drove to Mid-Valley Hospital.

Like most weekend nights, a backlog of drunken-driving suspects at the Lackawanna County DUI Processing Center meant he had to take the driver to a local hospital for a blood test.

His options: go to Mid-Valley Hospital and be out within 15 minutes, or head to a Scranton hospital and risk being out of town for an hour or more with only one other officer on duty.

“Depending on the wait, you could be talking anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and 30 minutes before you’re back in service,” he said. “Most (police) departments around here just use Mid-Valley Hospital.”

But when Mid-Valley Hospital stops offering inpatient and emergency department services in July, police in Midvalley and Upvalley communities will drive to Scranton for late-night blood tests, stretching already-thin resources and creating potential gaps in coverage.

The issue is one of several concerns raised by police or ambulance crews on Wednesday, a day after Commonwealth Health revealed plans to convert the Blakely hospital into an urgent care and outpatient services center.

Starting July 1, the Commonwealth Health Mid Valley Outpatient Center will offer treatment for minor illnesses and nonlife-threatening injuries between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Physicals, immunizations and outpatient services, such as radiology and lab services, will be available as well.

But experts say the elimination of emergency department services, which comes a little more than two years after Marian Community Hospital in Carbondale closed, is another blow to a region depleted of such resources. Compared to nearby communities, emergency medical services is ranked the highest need in the Carbondale area, according to a 2013 Community Health Needs Assessment commissioned by Wayne Memorial Hospital.

“People suffering a cardiac arrest or seizure could be transported to Mid-Valley, so it definitely changes access to care,” said Linda Thomas-Hemak, M.D., president and CEO of the Wright Center, which has a site in Jermyn. “But access is expanding in other venues.”

A recent surge in the number of advanced life support teams means paramedics often start treating patients en route to the hospital, easing the blow of having to travel farther to Scranton, officials said. Even with Mid-Valley Hospital open, many local ambulances already transport the majority of patients to city hospitals because certain specialized treatment isn’t available at the Blakely facility.

But some medical conditions, such as cardiac arrest, require immediate attention, said Frank Antenori, president of Blakely Ambulance and Rescue.

“That’s a big concern for us, because chances of survival are greater if you can get a patient to a hospital within the first 15 minutes of the occurrence,” Mr. Antenori said.

As the president of the Archbald Community Ambulance and Rescue Squad, borough police chief Tim Trently echoed Mr. Antenori’s concerns.

“We’ve probably saved lives over the years by bringing cardiac arrest patients to Mid-Valley and not having the long run to the city,” he said.

Another concern, Chief Trently said, is once Marian Community Hospital closed, police often transported mentally-ill patients suffering a crisis to Mid-Valley Hospital for an examination. Now officers could have to drive them to Scranton, meaning time away from the borough, he said.

“We expect there may be some increase in our emergency department volume, and we’re particularly interested in how that will work with mental health issues,” said Geisinger Community Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Anthony Aquilina, D.O. “With the closing of Marian and now Mid-Valley, there are fewer and fewer places for those crisis mental health situations to end up, and fewer and fewer resources for mental health in general.

He said the hospital has a designated area within the emergency department to manage mentally-ill crisis situations.

“We will manage it as it comes,” Dr. Aquilina said.

Contact the writer:

miorfino@timesshamrock.com, @miorfinoTT on Twitter

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